Female Prey & the Elusive Prey Read Online Free PDF Page A

things that could hurt her bare feet. She collected more branches, feeding them to the growing fire before opening her pack to see what damage had been done.
    It wasn’t as bad as she’d feared. Her clothes were all wet, of course, but her sleeping bag, made to repel water, was only damp on the outside. She zippered it open and spread it out to dry. Her scanty food supplies were a bit wet, but she’d be eating them very soon anyway. A light blanket she’d packed was thoroughly waterlogged, as was her towel. Still shivering, she wrung everything out that she could, hanging it over various tree limbs to dry. She took an aluminum camp pot, filled it with water from her canteen, and emptied some soggy soup mix into it, setting the pot on the fire. Some hot food would take a lot of the chill out of her, but until her clothes dried, all she could do was huddle by the fire, trying to keep warm.
    He finally got out of the ravine once he was sure she wasn’t going to double back along it. It took some effort. The sides were steep and rocky, offering few handholds. Some exposed tree roots came in handy. He paused at the edge of the ravine to contact Kurt and Lloyd and tell them she was heading downhill along the ravine. They could cover both sides of it and intercept her while he followed up, driving her into the trap. She hadn’t really had much of a chance to begin with, he thought, but she surely did make them work for it. He started downhill, keeping the ravine to his left as a guide. The hunt ought to be over by tomorrow. While he was looking forward to her capture, he’d miss the chase she’d led them on.
    With any hunt, though, it was never safe to assume anything was over until it was over. Elf-girl had surprised them…well, him…more than once, and she might have a trick or two left to use. As he went along, he kept looking for any sign of her tracks, or anything at all that might show she had gone this way. By the time it was getting too dark to see much, he’d found absolutely nothing, and was beginning to think elf-girl had eluded him again. He felt suddenly very tired, and sat down for a rest. Where could she have gone now?
    He took a candy bar out of his pack and munched on it glumly as he tried to figure out where she was. It was very possible she was on the other side of the ravine. It was also possible she’d doubled back. Either way, he was too tired and it was too dark for him to do anything about finding out. Not much point in contacting the others right now either.
    As he sat in the gathering dark, something tickled his nostrils, faintly. He turned his head, trying to detect the smell...wood smoke. He stood slowly and shed his pack, looking around. While it was getting dark, it was still too light to see a fire, unless it was close by. He’d have to wait. In the meantime…he moistened a finger and held it up. There was no wind, but there was a slight movement of air downhill. For a moment, he wondered how he could have possibly gone past her, then realized she had to be on the other side of the ravine. If she’d built a fire, she wasn’t going to be moving any time soon. He sat down to rest, waiting for more dark.
    It was night now. Kimberley had donned some reasonably dry clothes earlier, and the hot soup had helped her shake the chill immensely. She was feeling much better now, but very, very tired. Maybe she wasn’t in as good a shape as she thought. She yawned, her jaw muscles creaking. This was a hell of a way to spend a vacation.
    The sleeping bag was dry now, and she stretched out on it. She looked up at her not-yet-dry clothes hanging from any available branches and smiled. Laundry day in the forest. The blanket should be usable soon, but her towel hadn’t seemed to be getting any less soggy with time. Well, maybe in the morning it would be okay. The small campfire crackled warmly, casting dancing shadows across the trees and the hanging clothes. It felt very cozy after her dunking in the